Respect your elders: McLaren F1 is the car that started it all

What makes the McLaren F1 a legend? Lots of things, like motorsports pedigree, earth-shattering performance and a world record. Must be the engine bay lined with gold.

Handout, McLaren

Many things make the McLaren F1 legendary, including an engine bay lined with gold

by
Nick Tragianis | March 6, 2014

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In the lead-up to our Canadian exclusive test drive of the McLaren P1 tomorrow, we take a look at the the legendary McLaren F1.

What does it take for a car to be considered legendary?

It could be the engineering process derived from decades of success in Formula One. Maybe it’s the inherent ability to remain one of the fastest cars on the planet and achieve cult status, even to this day. Or it could be the small details, like an engine bay lined with gold because it dispels heat better than any other metal.

Truth be told, it’s almost impossible to determine what exactly makes a car legendary. But somehow, the McLaren F1 simply is.

It started in 1989 as a project undertaken by designer Gordon Murray to develop McLaren’s first road-going car. He approached the task with a simple mindset: design the ultimate road car that is heavily, if not entirely influenced by McLaren’s incredible success in Can-Am and Formula One racing. Add in a few creature comforts and — presto! — you’ve got yourself a supercar.

Originally, McLaren F1 designer Gordon Murray wanted an engine developed by Honda, but when it declined, BMW swooped in and gave us the 6.1-litre V12 we know and love.

During the development process, it is said that Murray wanted to use an engine manufactured by Honda, given McLaren’s partnership with the Japanese automaker in Formula One at the time. His requests weren’t too unreasonable: give it 550 horsepower, have the block measure 600 millimetres in length and weigh no more than 250 kilograms. Oh, and it had to be derived from the engines used in McLaren and Honda’s F1 cars.

Honda declined. Of all automakers, Isuzu wanted in given it was developing a 3.5-litre V12 for its Formula One efforts. But Murray insisted on an engine with a proven design and pedigree in motorsports. Hey now, everyone is picky at times.

Ultimately, BMW bit and created the 6.1-litre V12 engine we know and love, codenamed the S70/2 in BMW-speak. Made entirely of aluminum, the S70/2 actually exceeded Murray’s original specs, rated at 627 horsepower and 480 lb.-ft. of torque, and weighing 266 kg. Murray didn’t seem to mind because the engine was an impressive specimen in and of itself, complete with quad-overhead cams and a VANOS valve timing system. It was also normally-aspirated, another one of Murray’s requirements, because the ultimate road car obviously shouldn’t have any turbo lag.

Still, the engine alone doesn’t make the F1 legendary, even if it was paired to a good ol’ six-speed manual transmission. The chassis and body were, in the words of Ron Burgundy, kind of a big deal. Back in 1992, the McLaren F1 was the first road-going car to sport a monocoque chassis and be made entirely of carbon fibre reinforced plastic, or CFRP for short. Coupled with the carbon fibre bodywork, the F1 tips the scales at 1,138 kilograms and boasts a power-to-weight ratio of 3.6 lbs per horsepower, a figure still unsurpassed by many of today’s supercars.

The McLaren F1 has a power-to-weight ratio of 3.6 lbs per horsepower, a figure unsurpassed by many of today’s supercars.

So, if the engine and chassis alone aren’t what make the McLaren F1 legendary, then the gold must play a role. There is a lot of carbon fibre used throughout the McLaren F1, and because the S70/2 produces a lot of heat, the engine bay requires extensive insulation. The solution was to line it with 16 grams of gold — it certainly looks magnificent and borderline excessive, but it’s also one of the best heat reflectors Mother Nature offers.

It is said that during his youth, Murray had always wanted to design a three-seat sports car, one of the fundamental traits of the McLaren F1. By 1994, this became a reality with the first production-spec F1s hitting the road. In spite of its then earth-shattering zero-to-100-km/h sprint in 3.2 seconds, McLaren also didn’t skimp out on the F1’s creature comforts. Automatic climate control, power windows and a Kenwood sound system were standard. McLaren even threw in a few niceties, including a specially-designed luggage set and gold hand tools to match the F1’s engine bay.

Naturally, the McLaren F1 was an ace at motorsports. In 1995, the company developed the F1 GTR for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was actually slightly detuned due to a set of mandated air restrictors, but that didn’t matter. McLaren still won the race after its fleet of F1 GTRs claimed first, third, fourth, fifth and 13th place that year. Fancy that — detune the F1 and it still wins Le Mans. Does that make it a legend?

Fittinlgy, McLaren entered the F1 in motorsports. It was so good, McLaren detuned it and still won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995.

Almost. The icing on the cake came in 1998 when racecar driver Andy Wallace took an F1 prototype, the XP5, to Volkswagen‘s high-speed test track in Germany. With its 7,500 rpm rev limiter removed, the F1 topped out at 391 km/h and its V12 spinning at a stratospheric 8,300 rpm, establishing it as the fastest production car on the planet. Later that year, after 106 cars were built, the McLaren F1 ceased production. The three-seat, 627-horsepower supercar from Britain, which also happened to win Le Mans and set the record for the fastest car in the world, finally became a legend.

Times change. Supercars become faster. Carbon fibre trickles into everyday cars. Gold-lined engine bays become unnecessary. Manual transmissions are on the verge of extinction. Today, the F1 is eclipsed in some ways by even McLaren’s present-day road cars, including its halo-car successor, the P1. Whether or not the P1 can achieve the recognition and cult following the F1 remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: there won’t be a day when any McLaren vehicle, be it the 12C, the 650S or the P1, will ever stop respecting its elder.